Mystery Stole 2 "Scheherazade" -- and Barbara's Gallstone

It's been quite a while since I posted. I finally finished my Mystery Stole "Scheherazade" in late October or so -- but I had purchased blocking wires -- and then had ordered special U-shaped blocking pins from KnitPicks, and was waiting for them to arrive.

They finally arrived -- and one weekend, I had a killer headached that knocked me out of commission -- the next I was busy for other reasons. So, I finally blocked the Scherazade Stole on Sunday. I think it's dry, but I've left it blocked just to be sure. Maybe I'll take it out tomorrow and photgraph it.


The sad news is that Barbara had another of what I guess is called a bilious attack around 5am on Wednesday -- and was vomiting hard, with blood in it. When she called me for advice, I told her to go to her Santa Cruz Medical Foundation urgent care. They took lots of ultrasounds and diagnosed a large gallstone in her gallbladder -- and needs surgery since she was in great pain. They gave her a shot of painkiller because she couldn't keep the first pain pills down. Then they gave her a prescription for Vicodin. Barbara's had problems for about 5 years -- and had been misdiagnosed as having gastric reflux. Her gallstone is huge -- 2.3 cm -- about 1 inch in diameter.

She saw the surgeon yesterday (Thursday), and they scheduled the surgery for next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. He also prescribed stronger pain meds. I'm taking Wednesday off from work to drive up to Santa Cruz, and will take her to the surgery center. We hope she's in the 90% who can just have outpatient laparascopic surgery -- but they don't know until they start.

So the Thanksgiving holiday and her 22nd birthday the following Saturday are kind of on hold. I'm going to just buy a turkey breast -- in case we can come back to San Mateo after her surgery -- and we'll just have a small feast on Thursday. If I end up having to stay in Santa Cruz with her (or if she has the big surgery and is in the hospital for 4 days) -- then Steve can put the turkey breast into the freezer for some other time.

So -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her, and keeping her in my prayers (whether she likes that or not!).

Barbara's teacher training -- I have a couple of corrections to make. I talked to her about it, just to be sure I get it right.

Last year in her senior year, Barbara took an Education 180 class, where she needed 30 hours of "observation" in the Fall quarter. Barbara became a kindergarten aide for 3-4 hours about twice a week, and actually got about 45 hours that quarter. She was supposed to learn about classroom management.

Then, on a strictly volunteer basis since she enjoyed the teacher so much, she continued to be an aide once a week for the next two quarters. There was an "art specialist" in the classroom only the last 6 months of the year, and Barbara really enjoyed being there for that. She's always enjoyed arts and crafts.

Now that she's working on her Masters in Education and California Teaching Credential, she truly is doing Student Teaching (I wasn't sure). And she actually got to stay two weeks in the kindergarten class to start. She was sad yesterday because she has an eye infection, and the only squeeze-in appointment at her doctor's office was at 9:00 this morning, so she'd have to miss part of her last day there.

So, she mostly observes and assists, and will probably present a lesson here and there. At the end of the year, she'll have two weeks where she "solo's" -- that is, runs and teaches the classroom on her own, with the master teacher observing.

I remember having a Dominican novice history teacher who was a student teacher in Sister Imelda's class in my senior year. I remember when she solo'ed. It made it really clear what a wonderful master teacher Sister Imelda was -- and I was so glad to get her back at the front of the classroom!

Barbara's started in-classroom training on Monday. She's assigned to work in two different schools with two different grades -- with 4th graders this semester (so she's with the older kids in elementary ed) -- and with kindergartners starting in January (which is the age she thinks she wants to teach after graduation).

However, since kindergartners will be very different in January than on their arrival into the classroom for the first time, they made an exception to her schedule, and had her report to the kindergarten teacher for the first week this week. Barbara had been an aide last year with a teacher in a Santa Cruz kindergarten classroom. (I think that's what it was. I think it was associated with some class she was taking, perhaps a prepartory education class. Ooh, I'm sorry that I'm so fuzzy on the details!) When Barbar had trouble finding her "new" teacher -- the "old" teacher escorted her to the room.... and gave lots of praise about her, and how lucky the other teacher was to have her.

Steve later told me that Barbara told him that Barbara was introduced to everyone as "Miss Craig". I wonder why Barbara didn't mention that to me. It must have made her feel really grown up. I remember when on my first job in Boston, and folks would refer to me as "Mrs. Craig", it felt oh-so-different!

They said that she needed to learn about "forming communities" both in the kindergarten and in the 4th-grade classroom, so she can't stay in the kindergarten too long. I don't think Sister Annene (sp?) formed "communities" when I started in first grade, nor in any other grade I attended!

So, Barbara's doing practical training for 1 week in nearby Santa Cruz kindergarten. Then she does practical training for the rest of the semester in a farther-out Santa Cruz 4th grade. Then she returns to the same nearby Santa Cruz kindergarten in January. She was just gushing over how cute the kindergartners were. She said that by comparison, the first graders seemed so old.

Maybe she's right about herself. I hope she'll make a great kindergarten teacher! She certainly seems to have passion for working with the little ones!

Scheherazade Stole -- 7.5 Twelfths Done.

I'm about 1/2-way through the 2nd iteration of Clue 2 -- so about 7 1/2 out of 12 pattern sections done. There's no two ways about it -- I must have knit the center row (which is what I picked up when I removed the provisional cast-on) too tightly -- or due to my efforts at re-picking the row up in the right pattern. I can perceive a line there. Oh, well. I don't have to worry about working in something to not make it perfect.

Click on the photo to see a larger version. I included a yardstick for scale comparison (Dave had mentioned that the earlier picture needed some scale reference.)

Barbara came home this weekend (to help celebrate Steve's birthday) -- and I was able to show it to her in daylight. She was not enthusiastic. So it's going to be a present from me to me!

Mystery Shawl -- Side 2.

I'm definately making slower progress -- I've only done 34 rows of the first Clue. I guess I just don't have the drive that I had before, and I need to do some other things. When I'm into Clue 2 (maybe in about 20 more rows), I'll take another picture.

An update -- No real progress on the shawl.

I picked up the stitches and undid the provisional cast-on on Thursday, and I thought I picked up the right stitches. Maybe I did, but as I worked the first row of the opposite side, I know that I dropped at least one stitch and then had trouble picking it up. As I reached that last third of that row, I realized that the pattern wasn't lining up right. I undid the first row, and had trouble tinking here and there, and then the pick-up row was totally wrong.

So, I fussed and fumed and tried to get the row right, as per what the stitches should have been for that row per the chart. I had trouble in a couple of places picking up a stitch where the other direction must have knitted two together. The tension didn't feel right on the yarn in a couple of these places, and I figure I have to slip the stitches onto another needle, and make sure that every stitch is picked up properly and loose enough.

So I got bogged down, and didn't feel like doing that all weekend long. So I made no more progress.

Tonight is the third in a monthly "Craft Night" at my church -- so I'm going to bring it along and see if I can't fix that row and start knitting again tonight.

My Mystery Stole/Shawl is half done. My only fear is that I might have knitted looser in the second half of this -- and I sure hope that it won't affect the final blocked stole. The edging in particular seems to be looser than the rest of the piece. I'll have to hope that a thorough wetting and proper blocking will make all well.


The official name is "Scheherazade". Here's the information from the pattern's author (Melanie):

"Scheherazade was the name of the Queen who was the storyteller of 1001 Arabian Nights. The Sultan was in the habit of killing his brides after their wedding night and marrying again the next day. When he married Scheherazade, he'd already killed 3000 women. She kept herself alive by telling part of a story, then finishing the story the next night, when she would begin another story. After 1001 nights (and 3 sons) he realized he had fallen in love with her. Aladdin and Ali Baba are two of the more popular characters from her most well known tales.

I chose the name because I felt that Scheherazade was an interesting character. She was brave enough to volunteer to marry the Sultan in the first place, but had the presence of mind to tell a story well enough to capture his imagination, thereby keeping herself alive in the process. Not many of us could spin a tale that could intrigue and captivate the way hers did, knowing that failure would result in our execution. A woman of both great creativity and a very strong backbone, Scheherazade is herself a very interesting character.

In designing the stole, I borrowed traditional motifs from Arabian ornament - several of you have commented on similarities to Oriental carpets. The swirling lines, branching and curling, represent the storyteller, following the thread of a story as it grows and develops. Other motifs... represent the love that grows between Scheherazade and the Sultan.

For more information about Scheherazade, see the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade "

Mystery Shawl - Clue #6

Well, I finished the first 33 regular rows of the clue. You then had to cast on 24 more stitches, and she recommended doing knitted-cast-on, so I had to look that up. I am now into the edging. It's sort of like you're knitting at a 90 degree angle from the rest of the work, and marry up the even rows with the new work by knitting two together on the wrong-side rows.

You repeat it 7 times -- it'll form 7 "points". Most odd rows (pattern rows) you're either progressively increasing, or progressively decreasing, near the left-hand side. (The original knitting marries into the right side). The first iteration was slow until I neared the end of the pattern. Before going to bed, I was able to complete just a little more than half of a second iteration of the pattern.

Five-and-a-half iterations to go, and I'll be done side one. Then I have to pray that I don't have trouble picking up the stitches from the provisional cast on -- and that I pick them up on the correct side of the work!

Mystery Shawl - Final Clue (#6)

Well, I've downloaded Clue 6, the final clue for my shawl -- and I can actually start using it tonight! I finished Clue 5 (first iteration) last night. Maybe sometime next week, I'll be able to pick up the stitches in the middle, undo the provisional cast on, and re-do all of the clues for the other half of the stole.

I think I'll wait to post another picture until I'm on the second half. Clue 6 has only 33 (rather than 50) final regular rows, and doesn't end with a wrong-side (even) row. Then you go on and do an edging -- and she recommends sitting in a quiet place to do this. I guess that means I'll have to leave the house, go off somewhere else -- because as soon as I need to do something quietly, one of the guys will surely come to me and talk with a booming voice and make me jump and drop stitches!


On another note, Mark had his second official work shift on Wednesday -- followed by another last night (Thursday) because he's substituting for Jean, who also asked him to substitute for him for 6 hours on Saturday (10-4). So he's quite happy. Rather than 3 hours work this week, he'll have 12! He's counting the dollars already.

Mystery Shawl through Clue 4.

Since I'd last posted, I finished Clue 3 and Clue 4 as well. I actually started Clue 5 last night.

Here's a little picture of my shawl so far. I'd just completed row 203, and gone a half row on the "even" side, so that the knitting was spread evenly on both needles. I didn't semi-block it, I just tried to smooth it out on top of the family room sofa. The yarn is Patons “Lacette” 39% Nylon, 36% Acrylic and 25% Mohair -- the color is “Hint of Rose” (althought I prefer the French name underneath: “Soupçon de Rose"). There will be a total of 6 clues, and then I'll have to pick up the stitches where I began -- removing the the "Provisional Cast-On" in white yarn (which is on the left), and knit the other side just like the first. The earlier link I gave of someone else's knitting shows how much better it looks when the middle (both Clue 1's) are complete.

And, here is a little snippet of what the pattern looks like. I line-off every 5th stitch in red -- it helps me to count on the fly. I highlight each row that I finish, so that it's easy to see the next pattern row that I'm doing. The odd rows are the pattern rows -- the even rows are all k2, p95, k2. This is the start of Clue 5 -- so the row number start at 201.

I think that the counting-by-5 is easy for me because I use it in the picture logic puzzles that I love to do -- at least the version called "Paint by Numbers" in Games magazine, or called Pick-a-Pix on the Conceptis site (http://www.conceptistech.com).

Knitting the Mystery Shawl -- getting out of the hole.....

I knit 18 more rows last night. I've only got 10 more rows to go to get back to where I was on Sunday. So, with any luck, I'll get those 10 rows done tonight, and move close to finishing the first iteration of Clue 3.

I'd really like to start Clue 4 tomorrow, before Clue 5 comes out on Friday morning....

Mark's First Job.


Mark has been hoping for a year to get a job in our church's parish office like one of his friends. It's compatible with being a student, and not having to work many hours. The youth who work there work 3 hours in an evening, or all day Saturday. They act as receptionist at the door, answer the telephone, lock everything up at night, and I don't know what else. In quiet periods, they can do homework.

Well, an opening came in July, and he interviewed and was hired. He worked most of one Saturday in July as training. He worked his first real shift last night from 5pm - 8pm -- and received his first paycheck for that training day. ($38 after taxes. ) However, as low-man-on-the-totem-pole, he's only scheduled to work one evening each week so far. Maybe after they break him in, they'll give him an occasional Saturday.

Barbara started Grad School.

Since I didn't really post anything for a while, I should catch up on an item or two. One is that Barbara moved into her Grad School housing at UCSC on 7/1. Steve and I followed her in, and helped her move everything from her rented storage to her new apartment bedroom in just a couple of moves. We were more effiicient because everything was already packed up -- and we could load up both cars to the gills.

Barbara didn't start classes until 7/24. Even though she seemed a little discouraged with some of the assignments and teaching style to start, we hope she'll get settled in and happy before long.

If nothing else, it's about 12-13 months of intense work that she just needs to see through to get to her Master's in Education, and her California teaching credential. We're wishing the best for her!

Mystery Stole Knit-A-Long recovery from mistake....

I knit just about all last evening, and did another 20 rows. So, since I'd re-done 10 the night before, of the 58 rows I'd unraveled ("frogged", I've learned) -- I've redone 30 rows. 28 rows to go.

At least I'm back into Clue 3 of the Mystery Stole. Barely. If I knit a lot tonight and tomorrow, maybe I'll pass where I was before I discovered my mistake 3 nights ago. Maybe by the weekend I'll be on Clue 4. I have Clue 4 in hand, and will get Clue 5 on Friday.

Just so you can see where I'm going -- here's a link to a picture that someone else has made: http://knittygrittythoughts.typepad.com/ She's completed the first four clues -- twice, since you start from the middle and do 6 clues in each direction.

Of course, mine will look different, since it's a different yarn and a different color. ;-)

Backing out a Mistake on my Mystery Stole...

I've been working on Melanie's Mystery Stole Knit-a-Long http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/2006/06/mystery-stole-2006.html -- and had to "frog" (unravel) over a third of my progress last night , in order to undo a mistake. To me, it was a glaring mistake -- 9 stitches which had been knitted, rather than purled, on the wrong-side row. It left a ridge in the middle of one of the paisley/leaf sections that just marred it.

This stole is made up of 6 clues, 99 stitches wide, 50 rows per clue, which give you half of a shawl. Then you repeat the 6 clues from the middle (where you started) to create the second half. The error was 58 rows back. I was nearing the end of clue 3 -- and had to unravel more than one-clue's worth well back into clue 2.

As my sister Carol said, "I would have felt the same way ... oh, maybe I could put up with it; oh, no; it will disturb me later; I better undo it now; boo-hoo, boo-hoo, sob, sob, tears, tears, tears!"

When I get close to finishing the third clue again, I may try to post a picture.

Barbara's got a B.A.!

Well, she'll actually get her diploma in the mail in about 7 months -- we can hardly believe that's how they'll do it! They also let anyone who's going to graduate between now and next winter be in this year's ceremony -- maybe that's why there's a delay? When Barbara's in grad school there next year, she'll still have a few months of work to finish -- but will still be in the June graduation ceremony. It just all seems funny to me..... At any rate, when she went up on the stage, they handed her a little scroll rather than the diploma itself.....

We attended the Psychology Department reception for graduates on Friday afternoon -- a really, really hot day. We did a two-car run to Barbara's storage unit and then ate dinner at Carpo's -- a hamburger type of eatery, with good milkshakes. I stayed overnight (I brought bedding and pillows and towels and a change of clothes) so that I could help Barbara pack up her dishes and kitchen items that evening, and keep her company since non-graduating students had to move out earlier that day. We then ate at a diner with local color for breakfast. Barbara had to don cap-and-gown and check in at College 8 plaza for graduation by 11:45. Steve and Mark picked me up, and we walked over to the West field at about noon.

Saturday was hot and sunny in Santa Cruz -- so the outdoor graduation ceremony was both great and trying (Mark got a sunburn because he didn't want to use the cream sunblock I had for fear of acne, Barbara's hands did, too). However, it wasn't quite as hot as on Friday, so that was a blessing! UCSC holds 11 different graduation ceremonies -- one for each of the 10 undergraduate "colleges" and I suppose one for the graduate degrees -- half on the "West" field, half on an "East" field.

Since Barbara's "College 8" is on the western side of campus, her graduation ceremony started at 1:30 and finished up close to 3:30 p.m. We all had to exit and go back to College 8's plaza for a small reception, so that the field was open and clear for the Oakes College ceremony by about 4:00. It is only now on doing a search about the college names that I found this web site that tells about College 8 graduation sign-up and info: http://eight.ucsc.edu/graduation.html

All undergraduate students, whether they live on campus or not, are affiliated with one of ten residential colleges at UC Santa Cruz. Each college provides academic support, organizes student activities, and sponsors events that enhance the intellectual and social life of the campus in addition to housing students in small-scale residential communities. Every college community includes students with diverse backgrounds and academic goals. Each provides a mandatory "core course" for incoming freshmen based on a central topic, or "theme," that is unique to each college. The college affiliation is independent of choice of major, and assignments are based upon space availability and the student's requests for affiliation. Barbara had selected College 8 because she liked the view towards the ocean.

The first 7 colleges are named after each person who donated $1million (or maybe $1.5 million) to get a college so named. The last three colleges have not had a donor step forward, and so are just named by number, College 8, College 9 and College 10.

We had just enough time after the reception to load up our two cars with stuff to go to Barbara's rented storage room -- and make it to our 6:00 dinner on the Santa Cruz Wharf just 15 minutes late. (Steve had called them to let them know we were running late). We ate at Gilbert's Seafood Restaurant -- so since Steve and Mark don't eat seafood, they selected from the few non-sea items -- Steve had Chicken Teriyaki, Mark had Fettucine Alfredo. Barbara had a mixed-seafood pasta and I had scallops.

Steve then packed into his car a few last items to come home, while Barbara and I packed up her bedding and pillows, and made a last trip to storage to get in and out before they closed up at 9:00. She'd run out of boxes, so we stopped at the grocery store and got some paper grocery bags, plus bought a package of extra-large zip-loc bags so she could move her goldfish from its little tank to bring it home. We teamed up to empty her last refrigerator items and whatever else remained in her room, and load them into her car -- and then did cleaning. We didn't get out until about 11:15 -- and she had to drive me to my parking lot at Stanford to get my car. (Steve had picked me up from work on Friday.) We didn't get home until past 1 am - and we unloaded just the refrigerables and the goldfish, and then crashed into bed.

I'm taking a half-day off this afternoon so we can drive out to UCSC for the reception that Barbara's major department is hosting this afternoon from 3:00-5:00. Steve's going to pick me up from my office at 1:00, and the three of us will drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains (about an hour or so away from the office.)

I've packed a bag (including sheets, towels and pillows) and left them in Steve's car, so that I can stay overnight with her. (One of her apartment mates is checking out today, and will leave her door unlocked for me, so I can use a bed). All non-graduating students have to be out by noon today, which is only the day after finals are over! All graduating Seniors have to be out by noon on Sunday!)

Barbara has rented a storage space for a month on a special first-month-for-$1 plus $22 startup fee plus about $10 insurance. It's space that normally rents for $77 a month, and would pro-rate the following month if she can't move into her grad school apartment in time. She's already made a few trips there. If she has enough stuff packed up, we'll all help her move more stuff after the reception. Then Steve and Mark will go home, and I'll help Barbara with more packing-up and possibly moving.

She had hoped to move into campus housing or stay where she is. They won't let her stay where she is since she's not continuing in the regular summer quarter as an undergrad. And they won't let her move into grad school housing until close to her start-up date of 7/24. She could move into specific other temporary housing for $22/day -- which didn't seem worth it. So, using storage for her many belongings (she almost has a household, since she sort of lives in an apartment now) seems cheaper than making many trips back and forth over the mountain range. She could spend $22 in gas alone on one round trip!

The graduation ceremony is outdoors tomorrow at 1:30. And it's going to be HOT, since the winds have been off-shore for the past couple of days. (If the winds were following the normal on-shore pattern, they'd be blowing in cold fog from the Pacific.) So I've packed a sun visor, sunglass clip-ons and sunscreen, too. And some water and juice.

We have a reservation for a very nice restaurant in the Santa Cruz area for dinner tomorrow to celebrate. Barbara picked the place, and Steve made the reservation a month ago, and confirmed the reservation on Monday. The whole Santa Cruz area gets busy in the summer (there's a beach, even if it's often foggy and cold; and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park) -- but it's even busier on graduation weekend.